Gamers8 2023 CS:GO Day 1 Recap: Mirage Overtimes, 2-0 Sweeps, Six Eliminations

The Gamers8 2023 CS:GO kicked off yesterday on 16^th August in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with some of the best teams from around the world all set to give their absolute best to walk away as the winner of this $1,000,000 USD tournament.

On the first day of the tournament itself, six teams were eliminated following defeats in their respective best-of-three matches, due to the brutal single-elimination format which turns every single match into a must-win scenario.

Plenty of overtime action was spotted across maps, but despite the competition, all matches except one concluded with a clean 2-0 sweep.

Gamers8 2023 CS:GO - Day 1 Recap

A total of six matches were played on the first day of the Gamers8 2023 CS:GO and here is a quick rundown on how they went.

Heroic vs Falcons

One of the favorites to win this tournament, Heroic has been in sublime form and it was always doubtful that Team Falcons would be able to run away with a victory from this match.

As it turns out, Falcons put up one hell of a fight on their map pick Mirage, taking the game into double overtime before faltering. Heroic went on to win the second game on Nuke to move ahead, but the showing from Falcons was already beyond what was expected.

Heroic vs Falcons - Mirage: 22-18 | Nuke: 16-10

Apeks vs GamerLegion

Another double overtime thriller was witnessed in the first game between these two teams on Mirage which was selected by Apeks but unfortunately the outcome was not in their favor.

GamerLegion did not hold back and closed down the series 2-0 by winning the second game on Overpass, entering quarterfinals and eliminating Apeks.

Apeks vs GamerLegion - Mirage: 20-22 | Overpass: 13-16

Cloud9 vs Fnatic

No tension was witnessed in this series as Cloud9 was quite comfortable across Vertigo and Anubis against Fnatic. The new members Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy and Denis "electroNic" Sharipov put up great performances as the team qualified for the quarterfinals.

As for Fnatic, an already disastrous 2023 continues to follow the trend with another early elimination being handed to them.

Cloud9 vs Fnatic - Vertigo: 16-14 | Anubis: 16-7

Liquid vs ENCE

The North American hope did put up a fight but it was not enough to hold back the European mix of ENCE. The first map, Vertigo was selected by Liquid and they did try their best to get the early advantage but ENCE was able to escape unharmed.

They delivered a heavy blow to Liquid on their map pick Anubis to walk away as the winners, walking into the quarterfinals looking strong and bidding farewell to their opponents.

Liquid vs ENCE - Vertigo: 17-19 | Anubis: 5-16

MIBR vs Vitality

This was the quickest best-of-three series for the day with Vitality making quick work of MIBR by handing them consecutive defeats across Anubis and Inferno.

The French juggernaut Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut played a heavy hand in this decisive victory with a K/D of +21, but other members also contributed well to breeze into the quarterfinals.

MIBR vs Vitality - Anubis: 7-16 | Inferno: 8-16

NAVI vs FURIA

This was the only match which went down to the decider as NAVI came back from a deficit to qualify for the quarterfinals. Both teams won their respective maps, FURIA securing Nuke and NAVI taking Mirage, but they did face a stiff challenge from the opposition in both these games.

It was tough to predict a winner going into the decider on Ancient but NAVI made easy work of FURIA to enter the quarterfinals.

NAVI vs FURIA - Nuke: 11-16 | Mirage: 16-13 | Ancient: 16-4

Two more first round matches will be played today on 17^th August, resulting in two more teams entering the quarterfinals followed by the first quarterfinal match between NAVI and Vitality.